


Photo Booth Strips

by Wonderlandleighleigh



Series: Photos old and new [13]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Gen, John Winchester and his A+ parenting, M/M, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29010132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderlandleighleigh/pseuds/Wonderlandleighleigh
Summary: It took Ramona a while to figure out that her father's been in love this whole time. Now that she knows, it's just annoying.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Ramona Winchester/Tim Drake
Series: Photos old and new [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/538912
Kudos: 24





	Photo Booth Strips

1.

Ramona Winchester watches with raised eyebrows as her father waves a cassette tape and then taps Castiel in the chest with it. 

She watches as Castiel takes it and looks at it, smiling in soft delight. “Led Zeppelin.” 

“My favorite tracks,” Daddy says as he walks away. “You better listen to that or I’ma be pissed.” 

Ramona smiles slowly, and realizes that in all the years that her father and Castiel the angel have been friends - best friends - she’d never noticed how much they love each other.

Cas gives her an owlish look and she shrugs as innocently as she can manage. 

“Don’t look at me. I don’t pretend to know what he’s thinking at any given moment.” 

2.

“Daddy, you made him a mixtape!” she cries as they stumble out of the bar. 

She’s twenty-one now, and her father got her hammered as a birthday gift. 

“So what?” her father snaps, shrugging easily. He’s a little tipsy, but not enough to impede his driving. 

“You know who makes mixtapes for their crushes?” she tells him. “Fifteen-year-old girls! And I should know. I was fifteen and a girl like...six years ago.” 

“You ever make mixtapes for your crushes?” Dean asks, looking amused as he pulls out his keys. 

“No! Because nobody has a cassette player anymore,” Ramona tells him. 

He laughs softly. 

“For real, Daddy,” she says, leaning on the Impala next to him. “When’re you gonna get off your ass and...and tell him?” 

“Tell who what?” 

Ramona rolls her eyes and he reaches out, tugging her into a one-armed hug. 

“I just want you to be happy.” 

“Are you happy?” he asks, pulling away to look her in the eyes. 

She nods. 

Dean nods too. “Then I’m good. You don’t gotta worry about me, Princess.” 

“Liar,” she pouts. 

He chuckles and kisses her forehead. “Happy birthday, Ramona. Get in the car.” 

3.

After that, when she’s home from visiting from culinary school, she starts to notice things more. 

How close they stand.

How they have their own way of speaking to each other, unlike how they speak to anyone else. 

It’s late one night in the kitchen, as Ramona works on pastry dough that she’ll turn into danish in the morning, that she turns to Cas, who’s keeping her company as she works and tilts her head. 

“Hey, Cas?” 

“Yes?” He is reading a book - one of her father’s books, actually. “What is it?” 

Ramona smiles at him and crosses her arms. “Are you in love with my dad?” 

They stare at each other for a very long, drawn-out moment. 

She can tell what he’s thinking: How could he have been found out by a 21-year-old with very little experience in such matters? 

She just keeps smiling.

Castiel clears his throat. “This is a very good book. Have you read it?” 

Ramona shakes her head and turns back to the pastry. “No. What’s it about?” 

4.

“So…” 

Ramona is sitting awkwardly at the bunker’s kitchen table with her grandmother.

Her formerly-dead grandmother, who looks startlingly like her.

Or maybe she looks like Mary. 

Who can tell? 

“So…” Ramona repeats, glancing at the older woman.

“What is up with your dad and the angel guy?” Mary asks, leaning forward, smiling conspiratorially. 

“Oh, they’re totally in love,” Ramona blurts out. “They’re just really dumb.” 

Mary laughs, and Ramona relaxes. 

Maybe having a grandmother so suddenly won’t be so bad. 

5\. 

“Can I ask you something?”

They’re sitting on her couch, watching movies, snuggled up against the cold rain outside of her apartment windows. Tim has the night off of patrolling, and she loves these kinds of nights. 

“Sure,” she says, looking up at him with a smile. 

“What is up with your dad and his angel friend Cas?” Tim asks. 

Ramona blinks and then laughs softly and shakes her head. “You know? Who knows? For all I know they’re having kinky sex and just not telling anyone. Hell, maybe they’re secretly married.” 

“That doesn’t weird you out?” Tim asks, lifting an eyebrow. “Cuz if it were Bruce we were talking about, that would weird me out.” 

“Well, you’re not a Winchester,” Ramona grins. “I’ve seen much, much weirder.” 

6\. 

Jack is a strange addition to the family. He looks about Ramona’s age, but he’s literally a baby. 

And so, yet again, Ramona finds herself in the unenviable big sister position. 

“What have I said about little brothers?” she jokes, looking at her father, bewildered. 

“Oh, c’mon, cut me some slack here,” Dean begs. “It’s not like I expected this to happen.” 

“Well at least you had this one with Cas and not Lisa,” Ramona mutters. 

“What’d you say?” 

“Nothing!” 

7\. 

It’s late - much later, and Ramona puttering around the Bunker’s kitchen. Daddy and Nana Mary and Uncle Sammy have been explaining to Cas what happened: That Gramps was pulled here from the past. That he had to go back. That it had been deeply emotional. 

What do you do when your family’s abuser (and she knows that now. Sessions with Doctor Thompkins have taught her that yes, John Winchester abused her father and uncle, and her a little too) suddenly appears, seemingly back from the dead to sort-of-kind-of make amends? 

If you’re Ramona, you cook very complicated meals, to erase the aftertaste of Winchester Surprise.

“Ramona?” 

It’s Castiel’s voice. 

“Go ‘way, I’m busy,” she says, and she knows she sounds young and a little petulant, even though she’s going to be twenty-three soon. 

“What are you making?” he asks, standing in the doorway. 

“Well, I was going to make Cassoulet, but we don’t have seven different kinds of pork,” Ramona tells him. “So cheese souffle it is.” 

“This must have been difficult,” Castiel says gently. “Seeing your grandfather again, so suddenly. And you, only here to visit.” 

“Never a dull moment, right?” she asks with a little humor in her voice. 

“Dean’s told me...he’s told me some of what he and Sam went through as children…” Castiel tells her. “I know you watched some of it.” 

“I was too young to really get it,” Ramona shrugs. “He was just...Grumpy old Gramps to me…most of the time...” she thinks for a moment and then turns to him. “I got gut-shot when I was four, you know.” 

“I know,” Castiel nods, stepping into the kitchen and leaning against the counter. “Your father and I have talked about that, too.” 

Ramona nods slowly. “Gramps said stay in the car, but it was dark, and I got scared. So I went looking for him. And...y’know the story he told everybody was that the thing he was facing was armed. A skinwalker or whatever. It had a gun and it shot me, but that’s not true.” 

Castiel stays silent, watching her sadly. 

“I startled him,” Ramona admits. “I’ve never told anybody, but I startled the hell out of John Winchester and he turned around and shot me with a silver bullet.” 

Castiel watches her sadly, still quiet. 

“I almost told Daddy after Gramps died,” Ramona keeps going. “But he was...he was so angry. He was so messed up and I couldn’t add to it. I couldn’t put that on him when he had so much else weighing him down. I just...” 

Castiel steps forward, pulling her into a gentle hug, her cheek pressing against his trenchcoat. They’ve never hugged like this before. Not really. Brief, tight hugs when he’s come back from the dead, or when there was an excessive amount of danger. One-armed hugs on her birthdays. 

But not like this. 

“You should tell your father,” Castiel says once they pull away. 

Ramona huffs and nods. “You tell Daddy you’re in love with him, and I’ll tell him Gramps shot me in the belly. Deal?” 

Castiel huffs and shakes his head. “You are very much your father’s daughter.” 

“It’s been said.” 

He nods and steps back, standing against the counter again. “So...how do you make a cheese souffle?” 

8.

A year or so passes after her father and uncle die for the last time, and when Jody and Donna and the girls find out she’s pregnant, they talk her into a baby shower. 

When she pulls up in the Impala, Castiel is waiting outside for her. He looks the same. Trench coat and dark hair, a calm look on his face. 

A little happier, Ramona realizes. 

“Hi.” she says as she walks up, receiving a one-armed hug, like normal. 

“Hello, Ramona,” Castiel nods, smiling at her gently. “Congratulations on the baby.” 

She takes a breath and pats her belly; it isn’t very big yet, but it’s starting to be noticeable. “Thanks. I’m praying for a girl. Tell Jack I want a girl, because if I have to deal with anymore dumb Winchester men, I will break into heaven and punch him in his dumb god face.” 

Castiel chuckles. “I will let him know.” 

“How are Daddy and Uncle Sammy?” 

“Annoyed that they aren’t here, but otherwise fine,” Castiel tells her. “Come on, it’s getting cold out, and Claire is threatening to eat your cake.” 

Ramona grabs his sleeve before he can head for the door. “Hey. You tell him yet?” 

Castiel rolls his eyes at her, and silently tugs down the collar of his shirt, revealing a very prominent hickey. 

“Augh!” Ramona cries. “Oh my god, gross, Cas!” 

“You asked!” 

“Put it back!” 

END


End file.
